Hi, I was in your website this morning and was reading about Henry Skinner - found this interesting article and thought I would share it with you.
Henry decided to keep his option open as thought he might have driven in a few trotting races.
Skinner aged 68, admitted it was a young man's game but the fire still burnt for him.  He confirmed his best opponents were Ken Balloch, Peter Wolfenden and Tony Herlighy.  He was awared the Harness Racing Personality of the year in 1989-90 season.
With 709 winners under his belt had says his best win was with Sapling in Auckland Cup 1979, but Honkin Vision had the most brillance of any standardbred he drove.

Rata A had a few players missing, but it did not matter as the reserves were just as capable.  Mrs Raines (nee J. Kelly) was great in the defence third and played a solid game.  The Rata attacked won over the St Mary's defence and were ahead at half time 12-9.  
A. Pittaway, V. Fraser and A. McBurney completely overpowered their opposites which resulted in their shoots getting more attempts at goal.  For St Mary's, M. McGrath shot consistently with L. Mehaffey for the Rata attack.  A.McDonald worked well for Rata and shot some great goals.

An avid reader of Yacck, has sent us his scrapbook showing us how much he idolised Warwick Dalton, the cyclist.  His love for the sport came from his father and neighbours who were all involved in the administration of cycling, and  remembers well the esteem in which he held this man.  He tells the story that he remembered well the day that he married Gaynor Brazier from Nightcaps.  He was about ten years old and biked to the church where they were married.  When he got home his mother asked where he had been, "to Warwick Dalton's wedding" he replied.

This information may interest some readers regarding the above rugby club.  It is well known through documentation that the club originated from a split with the Excelsior Rugby Football Club in Gore.  The first ever Annual meeting was held on 31st March 1905 where 40 delegates were present.  The Pioneer Club was affiliated to the Southland Rugby Football Union. The colours decided were green and blue.

Laurence Browlie was born on 18/10/1943 in Balclutha and when he was one years old his father bought the Kelso Garage.  This was where Brownlie's passion came for motors and he became an A Grade mechanic and was determined to be a racing car driver. He bought his first car in 1965, a Daimler SP250.  Brownlie sure did have his ups and downs in the racing world and some bad luck certainly tested his ambition. Browlie lost everything in a crash with Denis Hulme at a Gran Prix in 1965...

Ray Alcock was prominent in the cycling scene in Southland in the mid -1950s and 1960s.  
Born on 18th August 1938, Ray was introduced to the sport while boarding with Duncan McKenzie, who had a friend, Ian Fraser that was into cycling.  At the age of 16, in 1954 he first took to competitive riding and a long history of successes was started. A quiet achiever, Ray said it all on the bike.

Murray Hewitt won the Otago-Southland trial in 1983.  However, Barry Harcourt's ride ended abruptly when he rode into a pot hole in the road.  Southlanders were determined to equal the score with Otago when they were well beaten in the Gore-Invercargill classic earlier in the year.
They managed this with 4 out of 5 placings.

Tom Tindale won Southland's second three day 'Tour of Southland" in 1957 with little effort.
Although only finishing 19th in the final stage from Lumsden to Invercargill, via Gore, his aggregate time left him well clear of Harry Hubber at the end of the 262 miles.

The opening of the Invercargill's Kew Bowl cycling track was plagued with bad luck and it took the third attempt to officially open the new concrete track in 1957.  The track was first built in 1949, but was grass with no fences.  The track was made redundant, 50 years later in 2006 when the new Invercargill velodrome was built.
Opposite, Kelvin Hastie competed this day.  He was former Otago-Southland road time trial  winner and 10 mile track champion.